The usual suspects are blooming away happily indoors, paying no attention to the vagaries of Chicago area's typical mid-March weather. Pictured are oxalis, fuchsias, dragon wing begonias, and African violet. The violet bloomed for three months straight, took a 2-week rest, and is blooming again. The others have bloomed all winter. And the fuchsia is still healthy! I killed the last two with kindness the last two winters. Going easy on watering in winter seems to be the trick. They're thirsty outdoors, but indoors in winter they seem to like drying out thoroughly between watering.
With spring less than a week away, the garden is waking up! No blooms yet, but we have buds - snowdrops and hellebores so far. In the lower right corner, Helleborus niger has its first-ever bud! This is its third year in our garden. As you can imagine, I'm delighted it finally decided to bloom (even if there's only one bud so far.)A very happy (almost) spring Bloom Day to all, and thank you to Carol for hosting. For more Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day posts, please visit her at May Dreams Gardens.
